Inside of this impregnable fortress, the traveler of to-day finds two prison chambers cut in the solid rock. These rock-hewn dungeons once echoed the tread, and resounded with the songs and prayers, of that strong-charactered and iron-willed man of God who came to prepare the way of the Lord—to make His paths straight! It makes one shudder to stand here amidst the solemn grandeur of these storm-beaten rocks, and contemplate the tragic history of this great man. A great man? Yes. It was John the Baptist who first had the courage to stand before his fellow-countrymen, and, looking them squarely in the face, say: “Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” With stentorian voice he cried: “O, generation of vipers;” “the ax is laid at the root of the tree;” “God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” “He that cometh after me shall baptize you with fire, He will thoroughly purge His floor and will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” It was John the Baptist who buried Christ the Lord in yonder rolling river. It was John the Baptist who pointed to Him and said: “Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” I thank God for the life and character of John the Baptist who, after all the honors heaped upon him, could say, I am nobody—I am simply the _voice_ of One crying in the wilderness. He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He must _increase_ but I must _decrease_. Yes, John said that he was nobody—that he was only a _voice_, and yet Jesus says: “Among those born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist.” Oh, to be _nobody_! Oh, to be only the _voice of Jesus_, calling men unto righteousness, and warning them to flee the wrath to come! Oh, that the writer and the reader of this chapter may “rise upon the stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things!” O, God, graciously grant, I pray thee, that both writer and reader may realize that the _magnitude of any life is to be determined by the distance of self from the centre_! In the same chasm with Machaerus, and not far away, there is a group of ten hot springs bursting forth from the side of the wady one hundred feet or more from its rocky bed. Although in close proximity to each other these springs vary in temperature from 130 to 142 degrees. According to Josephus, some of these fountains are bitter and others sweet. The waters are said to possess great medicinal properties and healing virtues. The maimed, the halt, and the blind resort hither in search of health. While living at Jericho, just before his death, Herod the Great, according to Josephus, came to these springs hoping to drown his disease. But the wicked, adulterous, murderous Herod was not so sick, I trow, “As he was troubled with thick-coming fancies That kept him from his rest.”